Russell Moves Into Lasorda’s Office

The pictures are down now, packed away in boxes in the office down the concourse from the press box, five floors above the room and wall of fame where they seemed to grow for the last 20 seasons.

If Bill Russell has ever met Frank Sinatra or Don Rickles, you couldn’t tell it from his new office, which is Tom Lasorda’s old office. Friday, after nine games on the road, after 45 games as manager, Russell has moved in.

Lasorda has moved out and one of his tasks as vice president will be to oversee the placement of Sinatra, Rickles, et al.

Russell’s office has four posters: from the 1977 National League championship series, the 1980 All-Star game, a Hall of Fame poster featuring Don Drysdale and Pee Wee Reese and a Dodger-Astro poster.

There is a Dodger logo over his head and a nameplate on the desk:

Bill Russell

Manager

*

Henry Rodriguez has taken the fall first, and the difficult part is that it’s here. Rodriguez, a former Dodger, warms up, takes batting practice, talks and waves to old friends in the stands and then sits, suspended for the series plus a game at San Diego on Monday.

He and teammates Moises Alou and Jeff Juden were punished by the National League for their involvement in a 15-minute brawl Monday at Montreal. Rodriguez hit a two-run homer off Danny Darwin, then was hit by a pitch in his next at-bat, inciting the fight which brought ejection for five players.

“I talked to my agent this morning, and we just decided to take the suspension now,” said Rodriguez, who leads the Expos with 30 homers.

“I wanted to play here. Everybody here is my friend. But I wanted to put this behind me, so I’ll just work out and then sit and cheer for my team.”

*

Todd Hollandsworth’s rookie-of-the-year race: He has the third-best batting average among NL rookies, at .286, behind Pittsburgh’s Jason Kendall (.307) and Florida’s Edgar Renteria (.302), and leads all rookies in homers with eight, runs batted in with 45 and stolen bases with 17. The Dodgers have had four rookies of the year in a row in Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi and Hideo Nomo.